How do I love thee?
by ChrissiHR
Summary: AU: Embry and Bella are lying in bed one lazy summer Saturday morning, basking in the sunshine pouring through the slats of the blinds like cats in a sun puddle as Embry recites "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..." and shows her. Pairing prompt provided by Afke Deen for the 2nd Annual Tricky Raven Author & Artist Silent Auction. One-shot, COMPLETE.


**Pairing:** Embry/Bella

**Rating:** M

**Genre:** Romance/Fluff

_This one-shot was written for __**Afke Deen**__ for Tricky Raven's 2nd Annual Author &amp; Artist Silent Auction. If you keep up with my wolf pack short story omnibus, Every Dog Has Its Day, you may recognize this one-shot from a preview I posted over the weekend.  
_

**Prompt:** _Sadly, Afke Deen has been out of touch since last month, just after I received a brief message from her after the high bidders were announced. In that message, she did give me a pairing to work with, but only a pairing with no additional prompt, so I decided to write something sweet and fluffy and wholly different from the other winning high bidder one-shot that I've created._

__With extra special thanks to __**jacobsgirl007**__ who offered to let me use her beautiful banner on Tricky Raven. Head on over there and check it out if you haven't seen it yet. __

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Sonnets from the Portugese 43:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

by Elizabeth Barret Browning

_How do I love thee? Let me count the ways._

_I love thee to the depth and breadth and height_

_My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight_

_For the ends of being and ideal grace._

_I love thee to the level of every day's_

_Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light._

_I love thee freely, as men strive for right;_

_I love thee purely, as they turn from praise._

_I love thee with the passion put to use_

_In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith._

_I love thee with a love I seemed to lose_

_With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,_

_Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,_

_I shall but love thee better after death._

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Stretching like a cat in a sun puddle, Bella didn't bother to open her eyes as the first rays of sunshine filtered through her fluttering lashes.

She reveled in the lazy summer morning scents and sounds that surrounded her. The warmth of the sun subtly enhanced the delicious fragrance of her new home—_their_ new home. The lavender-infused sheets felt cool on her silky, smooth-shaven legs. The early morning sun streaming through the slats of the open blinds warmed her wherever its touch alighted on her bare skin.

The heat of the sun intensified the homey spice of warm, sour cherry slab pie that lingered in the air from the housewarming party the pack had thrown the night before. Fresh paint and a whiff of sawdust were omnipresent along with the creamy scent of blood orange body butter. Embry had gently massaged her with head-to-toe after a long day spent on her feet prepping for the beach party. Her day had finally ended with the massage and Embry's favorite pie and vanilla bean ice cream in their newly-renovated apartment.

The pack had helped them move into their first place together the previous weekend. It wasn't much, but it suited them perfectly. With Embry's tribal stipend, some college grant money that could be used for housing, and their two part time jobs, they had just enough to cover their rent and a month's security deposit. After some careful coupon-clipping and saving, they were able to buy some paint to spruce up their new place, and eat ramen noodles and store brand rice krisp-Os for the next two weeks.

They got off-brand paint even cheaper on clearance and Bella, in the way of her mother, had worked magic with paint and sponge and tape to stretch their meager savings and thrift store finds to make them something special.

Bella wouldn't trade it for anything.

She worked hard to make their tiny bedroom feel larger for her enormous boyfriend by painting the walls and ceiling a light blue called Serene Sky. She sponged lighter-than-air, puffy white clouds and a sliver of moon in the early morning sky and ended up pretty pleased with her results.

Working tirelessly until three or four a.m. some mornings, Bella painted all her old flea-market and thrift store finds in the same white as the cabinets and ruthlessly re-upholstered or bleached and dyed covers for chairs, tables, end tables, and their beat-up, old couch.

Embry did the heavy lifting, vacuumed sawdust and paint flecks endlessly, and reminded her to eat. Sometimes, he'd just make food and set it on a plate near her before taking away her paintbrush or staple gun.

She was a woman on a mission.

She had a nest to feather.

Together they had somehow made their little three-room place feel both homey and spacious.

Adjusting the little speckled blue cami she'd worn to bed, she dipped her shoulder back toward her mate, turning just enough in his arms to watch his long raven's feather lashes flutter above the dusky copper planes of his high cheekbones.

"You're awake," he whispered, pressing his lips to her temple.

"Yes, I am," she replied simply, wiggling her shoulders to nestle more deeply into his embrace.

"This is nice. Let's just stay here forever," he mumbled into her hair, burrowing into the mountain of down pillows beneath them.

Rubbing her cheek indulgently across the velvety pillowcase, Bella was reminded of her Gran.

Gran had loved sleeping on a pile of big, fluffy feather pillows, too. She always kept a few spares with pretty butterfly pillowcases for when Bella visited, so when Bella got her own place, the very first thing she splurged on was a heap of feather pillows with whisper-soft cotton pillowcases made precisely for long afternoon naps and sleeping in on Saturdays.

Embry obliged her, never once complaining about the expense. Not that he would have after she talked him into the first feather pillow nap in their new bed together.

He admitted to her later that night that it was the best he'd slept in years.

Bella shivered as a delicate cross-breeze from Second Beach sent the filmy white sheers over the open blinds fluttering.

"Cold?" Embry asked, tightening his hold around her middle.

"Never, with you here," she swore, wrapping her arm over his where it lay under her breasts.

Pulling his arm from beneath hers, he slipped a finger under the thin strap of her silk jersey cami, running his knuckles the length of it down the bare expanse of her smooth shoulder blade. "This wasn't exactly designed for warmth," he said, touching his lips to her rounded shoulder, opening them so he could touch just the tip of his tongue to the skin there before he withdrew, her skin clinging lightly to his moist lips.

Reaching back to run her free hand down his stomach to the waistband of his grey boxer-briefs, she plucked at them and snickered, "Neither were these, you know."

Not that she was complaining. She loved the feel of the worn cotton rubbing against her as he inadvertently ground his hard length into the soft cleft of her bottom in his sleep. His legs would tangle with hers as they snuggled together and her little boy shorts would ride up, the rough hems of his boxer-briefs rubbing the backs of her thighs.

She shuddered delicately with desire, but tried to turn the conversation to take her mind off of it. "We can't lay here in bed all day, Emb. The summer session just started and we took off all last weekend, too, to move in. We need to study."

"Who says we can't study right here? Hmm? How about some British Lit?" he moved, repositioning her on her back in the center of the bed and sliding one long, muscular leg between hers. Parting her smooth, creamy thighs gently and easing them apart to make room, he nestled in the cradle of her hips. Propping his chin on top of his folded hands on her stomach, he smirked, "Gimme a beat."

"A beat? Are you channeling Quil? You want me to beatbox for your romantic poetic recitation now?"

He huffed in mock annoyance, "Fine. You want acapella? You got it."

Clearing his throat, he swept strong capable hands behind her lower back. His long, slim fingers stroked her skin as he moved up onto his knees between her legs and drew the little silk cami over her head, tossing it away without looking where it went.

He didn't care where it landed, as long as it was gone and all that luminous, pale pink flesh was bare to pay his homage.

Bringing his lips to her throat just below her ear, he murmured, "_How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…_"

Bella shivered, cupping his cheeks to hold his gaze, telling him again without words how much she loved him.

But he knew.

This was _his_ time—his time to show her all that and more.

Pecking a line of kisses trailing down her throat to nibble on her clavicle, he tickled her, drawing his nose over the tender skin to the hollow of her throat. Picking up where he left off, he nibbled teasing little kisses in a meandering line down her chest. Laying more kisses on either side—one for the top of each breast—he slid further down her enticing figure to lap at the tasty undercurve of each soft handful.

Embry loved her breasts. He loved their scent and taste. He loved the weight of them, the heft in his hands.

It didn't hurt any that they got bigger when he and his wolf got a little pushy and fed her up some.

She'd desperately needed the extra ten pounds anyway, but she'd gained a full cup size at the same time.

Embry wondered what another five pounds would do…

Bella watched him knowingly as he contemplated the many mysteries of the female breast.

She knew what he was thinking.

Bella wondered herself what another ten pounds would do, but she wasn't going to tell _him_ that. He'd be stuffing her with teenage werewolf food for a month. A girl could only each so much pizza, pasta, and hot wings.

The other day, she caught Quil making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with two chocolate Pop-Tarts, for goodness sake!

When Embry's heated mouth closed over the peak of a rosy pink nipple, she stopped thinking and let herself _feel_.

Nobody had ever made her feel like Embry could.

Stoking the fires of her lust, he pulled the little pink bud into his mouth, caressing her areola with the tip of his tongue and letting go, only to blow gently over the damp flesh, puckering the dusky satin skin and making her moan.

He gave the next lines of the well-loved poem to the hollow between her breasts, whispering them directly to her heart through lips pressed to delicate pink skin, "_I love thee to the depth and breadth and height, my soul can reach, when feeling out of sight, for the ends of being and ideal grace…"_

She whimpered and her breath caught in her throat, overcome with love for her wolf, her Embry.

Catching and holding him there, her fingers threaded through his shaggy hair, scratching lightly at his scalp. She absorbed the words, drinking in his love like cool lemonade as he worshipped her flesh.

The searing heat of his tongue made her flush and tremble as it blazed a wet trail down the smooth plane of her abdomen. Swirling it enticingly around her navel, he couldn't prevent his wolf from dipping his tongue inside to taste her sweet-salty flavor, his words a low, rumbling promise delivered deep into her solar plexus as if to implant them there forever where they would never be lost, _"I love thee to the level of every day's, most quiet need, by sun and candle-light."_

His hands caught her wrists, tugging her clenching fingers from his hair, interlacing their fingers to give her something to hang onto, to anchor herself when her back arched, pressing her skin into his seeking mouth.

She sighed at the feel of his lips, peppering those slow, narcotic kisses she so loved in a teasing pattern down her belly. A kiss to each hip bone and one to the top of her plump mound made her moan, anticipation curling low in her belly. She itched to curve her body around his head, lock her legs behind his neck and press herself into his scorching mouth.

Shimmying down the bed, he continued his sweet torture, nipping at her thighs as he lay between them. He shouldered his way under them until her legs were bent on either side of his head, her smooth thighs hugging his head almost exactly like she imagined. Her chilly feet were pressed flat to his back and her toes tickled and wiggled as he flexed the muscles beneath them and she tried not giggle.

It was a lost cause, though, because his fiery breath alone was enough to make her laugh at the tickling heat on the exposed little bundle of nerves Embry had set his sights—and his mouth—on. When he parted her folds and laved her tenderly—withdrawing the barest of centimeters to blow gently on her most sensitive spot—her delighted laughter rang out, like the peeling of crisp silvery bells.

Slanting his mouth once more over her responsive flesh, he nibbled and stroked with teasing touches until his own need for her made him ache and she trembled with desire, her need for him ripening into a ceaseless throbbing pulse. It was only then that, into her delicate soft heat, the most vulnerable part of her that made her _her_, he murmured, _"I love thee freely, as men strive for right; I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use, in my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith."_

Bella ached for him, too, pleading with him to grant her sweet release and when she peaked, when she trembled and wept, overwhelmed with his love and the pleasure he'd stoked to a maddening crescendo, he whispered softly, resting his head on her quivering thigh, "_I love thee with a love I seemed to lose, with my lost saints."_

Temporarily sated and drowsing, her fingers scratched idly at his scalp, twirling his messy locks around her fingers and catching her breath. She heard his, too, hushed rasps accompanied by little heated puffs into the crease at the apex of her thigh.

At long last, he rose to his knees, towering over her slight form. Sliding into her welcoming heat, he brought her sobbing again to a dizzying peak, his slim hips circling with each thrust. When he would have wrapped her in his arms and crested the summit together, giving her the final words of the poem, she gave them to him instead. With all the love in her heart and tears in her eyes, she whispered into a kiss, pleasure breaking over them as one, "_I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death."_

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**A/N**: _Huge thanks go out to __**meliz875**__ and __**bkhchica**__ for pre-reading and helping me make a coherent story out of the exhausted rambling gibberish this was at the outset. ;)_

_I really enjoyed writing this for __**Afke Deen**__ for the __**2nd Annual Tricky Raven Silent Auction**__. I hope you enjoyed reading it just as much. Thank you for reading and supporting the community of writers and readers here at Tricky Raven.  
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